How to get review items for YouTube

This is my personal account of this and maybe different for everyone but I thought I would at least share my experience...

So, I had a YouTube channel Netroman28 (http://www.youtube.com/user/netroman28) for a long time; probably for about 5 yours or so now; which I created so can do the proof of 18 and watch videos. Never really had interest in producing them to begin with..

Anyhow; one day about a year and half ago maybe I thought "I think I'd like to review things"... But.. Having only few subscribers I had no audience base. So I spent some time building up some subscribers till I had around100 or so. That gave me a good start base.

So; what I did was go through Mac App Store and less expensive download software that was produced and emailed a number of these companies. Some may ask how did you do that? Well, once I had identified a piece of software I wanted to review then I spent some time on the company website, got an idea of the software, found any contact pages with emails. I then spent some time constructing an email explaining I would like to review your software on my channel; gave them a little about myself; experience; what I wanted to do and why I wanted to review their software.

I came across some very generous companies through that time, many give me give away copies too to try and build up more subscribers. This was hit and miss though as a lot of people never tried entering the competition which meant 2 or 3 subscribers won a number of these items..

But so it progressed; find a company; construct an email; if get software do the review and put on channel. Its a cycle. Then I was lucky to come across 1 advertising company. They started providing me with software without my need to request which was great. No give aways though. Thing is; I love doing the give aways but if people did not enter it was kind of wasted effort.. Would love to do more in the future..

Progress to today.. I now have a couple of advertising companies having sent me items. Its about maintaining the connection; providing good solid feedback that they require at times. But also as you do more review, hopefully gather more subscribers; you can go for bigger software. As an example I am currently cutting together a review of Reason 6 and I have another big music software name just come in with a potential other big Other software company contacting me.

I'm always grateful for the companies that put their trust in me so I always also thank them for this in both an email and by producing good video.

If you produce good video; prove you can provide content; write polite and informative emails; then companies will trust you. Just as a side note I get about 60-70% reviews out of my emails. 30-40% of companies tend to not take the option for a review so don't be dis-heartened if you get some turned down.

One other important thing to consider. Although my Netroman28 channel gets reviews and lots of views its not the easiest channel name. I created a new channel TheGeekFiles (http://www.youtube.com/user/thegeekfiles). This is a more technology based channel name and is one I am now trying to build and get as my tech and review channel. I have some luck in that I can duplicate reviews on both channels for now with the larger channel getting me the software. But it is important to choose a good name.

Please do stop by to channels and subscribe. If nothing else you can see the style I use and its a style that gets me positive feedback from companies, people and provides a good example for companies to check out.

One last thing. Don't be put off by people with negative comments. Trolls on youtube, blogs, etc exist and will always leave you a negative comment. The more success you have the more you get. I'm not sure if its their way of trying to get a name or just jealous.. but as long as you enjoy ignore. I get all sorts (had a "why don't you go and die" comment the once and I just sent a reply of hehehehe dickh#@d hehe)..

Enjoy guys and hope this helps a little